Fires damage multiple City Power substations in Johannesburg

2023Published 28 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor

SignificantThermal / fireProvisional

Reported damageFrom the sourceHow? Know the real figure?

supply cut for about •• daysShown in the record →Full estimate

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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): City Power

What happened

Over about 18 months to June 2023, City Power reported at least seven fires at its substations in Johannesburg. The latest named site was the Brixton traction substation, less than a week after a fire at a City Power substation in Soweto. The fires caused significant inconvenience for residents and compounded load shedding. A related report linked the Brixton fire to electricity and water supply problems. City Power estimated R106 million to restore full capacity at the affected substations, and said not all of them were fully operational.

It also put the asset renewal backlog for substations and transmission lines at R3.6 billion. Full restoration at Brixton was estimated at R3 million. Dates and the full list of sites were not set out in this report.

Contributing factors

City Power said the fires had a range of causes, including theft and vandalism, rolling blackouts and overloading of transformers. An energy expert separately argued that poor maintenance, ageing transformers and weak protection against overload are wider problems. Those points were not confirmed as the cause of each fire.

Lessons learned

Accelerate predictive and preventative maintenance so ageing substation plant is less likely to fail in service.
Keep transformer protection in place and effective against overload and other faults.
Maintain contingency plans for every substation, as City Power said it is required to do.

More lessons on maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, electrical protection and isolation, from every incident on the register.

Source

dailymaverick.co.za

Published 2026-09-28. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.

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